'Be silent, if you choose; but when it is necessary, speak—and speak in such a way that people will remember it.'

'If you hear a voice within you say 'you cannot paint,' then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.'

- Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890)

'Voices ought not be measured by how pretty they are. Instead they matter only if they convince you that they are telling the truth.'

- Iconic singer Sam Cooke (1931–1964)

'There cannot be mental atrophy in any person who continues to observe, to remember what he observes, and to seek answers for his unceasing hows and whys about things.'

-Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922)

'(Kids) don't remember what you try to teach them. They remember what you are.'

- "Muppets" creator Jim Henson (1936-1990)

A Quote by Sandra Day O'Connor

"Do the best you can in every task, no matter how unimportant it may seem at the time."

A quote by athlete Walter Payton

"When you're good at something, you'll tell everyone. When you're great at something, they'll tell you."

'I love quotations because it is a joy to find thoughts one might have, beautifully expressed with much authority by someone recognized wiser than oneself.'

- Actress and singer Marlene Dietrich (1901-1992)

Mozart defined the Classical period with realism and social commentary

Dive into the Classical period, a time that emphasized a less extravagant approach to music and focused on societal issues. Defined by Mozart’s influence, find specifics about his career and why he’s remembered for his compositions and the wit and emotional depth of operas like "The Magic Flute."

'Let us learn to show our friendship for a man when he is alive and not after he is dead.'

Meyer Wolfsheim in F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby"

'Knowledge will forever govern ignorance.'

- US President James Madison (1751-1836)

'Mediocrity is always invisible until passion shows up and exposes it'

- Graham Cooke

How to write a great speech

Before walking onto a stage or booting up a Zoom meeting to deliver a speech or presentation, you have to know what story you want to tell. This story acts as a keystone, providing an ideological foundation on which the rest of the speech balances. This story should be bigger than the moment it's delivered, giving listeners the ability to connect to expressed concepts across time.

'The minute you start talking about what you're going to do if you lose, you have lost.'

- Diplomat George Shultz (1920–2021)

'You shouldn't dream your film, you should make it!'

- Filmmaker Steven Spielberg (1946-present)

'All the world is birthday cake, so take a piece, but not too much.'

- Musician George Harrison (1943–2001)

Beethoven's correspondence in 1801 documented his tinnitus suffering

Ludwig van Beethoven's hearing loss is one of the best-known cases of this condition among historical artists. He also suffered from tinnitus and wrote in 1801, "My ears are buzzing and ringing perpetually, day and night. I can with truth say that my life is very wretched…"

'Years ago, I tried to top everybody, but I don't anymore. I realized it was killing conversation. When you're always trying for a topper you aren't really listening.'

- Comedian Groucho Marx (1890-1977)

A history of "Memento Mori," from the ancients to today

The ancient Latin phrase 'memento mori' means 'remember you will die.' The counterintuitive utterance has long provided a moral and spiritual framework for individuals to evaluate their life's decisions and worldview. Though it appears morbid at first glance, the saying is meant to inspire a thirst for life. Review the various ways the idea has inspired different cultures in this article, from the Romans and Egyptians to contemporary tech leaders like Steve Jobs.

'The earth is rude, silent, incomprehensible at first, Nature is rude and incomprehensible at first, Be not discouraged, keep on, there are divine things well envelop'd.'

- Poet Walt Whitman (1819-1892)

Watch writer John Steinbeck's Nobel Prize acceptance speech.

‘The Artist Is Present’ is one of the most famous performance pieces in history

The exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art invited visitors to sit in silence in the company of a master performer. Many shed tears or gestured affectionately, claiming to have felt a profound connection with Abramović. (This resource contains some artistic nudity.)

Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes championed the idea of speech as a 'marketplace of ideas'

In his landmark dissent in Abrams v. United States, Justice Holmes argued that the best way to combat harmful ideas is through open competition—a principle that became foundational to modern First Amendment law.

'This is my invariable advice to people: Learn how to cook—try new recipes, learn from your mistakes, be fearless and above all have fun.'

- Chef Julia Child (1912-2004)

Albert Einstein taught courses in Davos

This silent video from the 1920s shows footage of Einstein at Davos. The famous scientist spent time there, delivering public lectures on his theory of relativity as part of the town’s university courses.

'Too often we participate in the globalization of indifference. May we strive instead to live global solidarity.'

- Pope Francis (1936 - 2025)

'Silent' fireworks have gained more interest in recent years as a quieter celebratory option.

After NASA's Voyager 1 captured Earth as a single pixel as it left the solar system in 1990, astronomer Carl Sagan used the image to reflect on humanity's fragility and the responsibility to protect 'the only world we've ever known.'

Clever Hans was a 1900s horse that was believed to be able to solve math equations, tell time, and read and comprehend German, until a psychology student discovered how he got his answers.

In 1939, baseball star Lou Gehrig delivered his inspirational 'Luckiest Man' speech after retiring due to the health condition that now bears his name.

Graffiti dates back to at least ancient Pompeii, where citizens scrawled messages to one another on public walls

English mathematician Ada Lovelace wrote the first computer algorithm a century before computers existed and hypothesized that computing devices would one day be able to compose music—foreseeing the generative AI systems of today.

American dance legend Martha Graham, sometimes called 'the Picasso of dance,' refused to perform at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin and conceived the piece 'Chronicle' in response to the experience.

Before writing 'Walden,' transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau nearly burned down his hometown with a campfire that grew out of control.

Existentialist writer Jean-Paul Sartre coined the famous phrase 'Hell is—other people' in his play 'No Exit'

Walt Disney's early film 'Alice's Wonderland' was a groundbreaking innovation in the silent film era

Legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright designed the SC Johnson headquarters in Wisconsin, aiming to make a cathedral-like workplace

Studies suggest when you sleep is as important as how much you get, and syncing with your circadian rhythms may lead to less fatigue and improved long-term health outcomes

The US Constitution is widely regarded as the longest-standing written national constitution still in force—see how it has influenced rights worldwide.

Prince's sexually explicit 1984 track 'Darling Nikki' attracted the ire of the Parents Music Resource Center, an advocacy group that inspired the Parental Advisory sticker, even though the song ends with a Christian message.

The word 'jazz' evolved from 'jasm,' 19th-century American slang for 'energy'

Listen to an in-depth conversation on the links between Parkinson's disease and herbicide exposure and the challenging pace of scientific investigation.

Warren Buffett's former professor Benjamin Graham is known as the 'father of value investing,' a strategy in which investors seek to buy stocks trading below their intrinsic worth.

American short story writer Flannery O'Connor raised 40 peacocks, which became potent symbols for her fiction's elegant violence

See a ranking of the best (and worst) Federal Reserve Chairs since 1914 out of the 16 men and women who have held the office since.

Budweiser stores yeast derived from the original 1800s strain in a secret bunker, which only the Head of Yeast Management can access—not even the CEO

NBA superstar Victor Wembanyama spent the 2025 summer training with monks in central China to enhance his body and mind.

Waves off the coast of Nazaré, Portugal, can reach over 100 feet and are caused by the area's deep underwater canyon geography

Marburg virus, related to Ebola, is also extremely deadly, and has no available vaccine.

While atoms are normally made of protons, neutrons, and electrons, exotic ones have been built with antimatter—alternate versions of normal matter that live for fractions of a second and are about a billion times as rare.

Volcanoes 'die' when their supply of magma runs out, if they are shifted away from their underlying magma reservoir, or if they get clogged by collapsing or their magma cooling back into rock.